Viks set for district tennis tourney

Early rounds of the boys tournament will take place at Forest Grove High, Pacific University

The seeds have been assigned and the brackets have been drawn. All thats left now is to play some tennis.

The Pacific Conference is staging its boys and girls district tournaments starting Thursday, and on the line are singles and doubles berths to the Class 6A state tournaments, slated for May 16-18 in Portland and Beaverton.

But before state, the bulk of the boys Pacific district event will take place in Forest Grove, while the girls tournament will be situated in McMinnville.

Forest Grove boys coach Peter McKinnon, for one, believes his team is ready.

The kids have been improving all year and theyre doing better on the second pass with all the teams theyve played than the first pass, McKinnon said of his squad, which went 4-10 in conference matches to finish in sixth place. Newberg posted a perfect 14-0 record to win the match-play title.

The Vikings with the best shot of advancing to state appear to be Nathan Tanous and Cameron Wilbur. After qualifying for the state tournament in 2012 with different partners, the two are teaming up for this springs district tournament as Forest Groves No. 1 doubles pairing and the No. 4 seed in the field, behind Mike Peterson and Aden Tillman of Newberg, and two McMinnville partnerships: Will Worth and Adam Kiff, and Brendon Walters and Nicky Dominichini.

Tanous played singles for much of the season, McKinnon said, but won two doubles matches late in the season with Wilbur.

Cameron and Nate, they should easily get to quarterfinals, and then theyre going to have a tough match, but I think they can beat the team from McMinnville that they would meet there, McKinnon said.

The Vikings No. 2 doubles tandem, Kemmis Johnson and Austin Pendleton, could also make a run.

Theyre actually a really good team. If they play Nathan and Cameron, its actually a pretty tight match, so theyre a good team, McKinnon said. They could potentially go as far as Nate and Cameron maybe, its just hard to say. I think at the end of the day Nate and Cameron would beat them, but its really close.

The other Forest Grove doubles teams are Andrew Van Dyke and Jonathan Faris, and Nathan Dixon and Grant Larson. Andrew Pitaressi, Douglas Wilbur, Noah Wilson-Fey and Abe Villasenor will be playing singles for the Vikings.

The top four singles seeds, in order, are Newbergs Anthony Croteau, Tommy Edwards of Century, Randall Tainer of Tualatin and Glencoes Wesley Upton.

The boys tournament kicks off at 2 p.m. on Thursday with the first round of singles matches at Pacific University and the first round of doubles at Forest Grove High School. The tournament resumes at 9 a.m. on Friday with second-round and then quarterfinals singles and doubles play at Pacific and consolation contests at the high school.

As for the Lady Viks, they enter the district tournament after posting an 8-6 record in league play for a fourth-place finish. Tualatin went 14-0 in match play, followed by McMinnville (11-3) and Newberg (10-4).

In doubles, Forest Groves teams are Taylor Aasland and Natalie Brandt, Lisa Spiesschaert and Joelle Hepler, Diana Gamez and Melissa Dominguez, and Tess Sivak and Charlotte Sidman. The four seeded doubles tandems, in order, are Mollie Freel and Eloise Loen of Tualatin, Ayumi Mizuno and Courtney Roshak of Tigard, Tualatins Nicole Janes and Bella Koessler, and Molly Olsen and Sam Purdy of McMinnville.

The girls tournament also kicks off at 2 p.m. on Thursday, with first-round singles play at Linfield and first-round doubles action at Cowls Courts. The second round of singles and doubles will begin at 9 a.m. at Linfield on Friday, and consolation play will begin at the same time. Singles and doubles quarterfinals will also be played at Linfield later that day.

All boys and girls singles and doubles semifinals, third-place matches and championship finals, as well as consolation semifinals and championships, will take place in McMinnville beginning at 9 a.m. on Saturday. The consolation semifinals will be staged at Cowls Courts, while all other matches will take place at Linfield.